Review: Descent of Angels

Descent of Angels by Mitchel Scanlon

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Well here we are volume six of the Horus Heresy and the introduction of the Dark Angels Legio Astartes (or Space Marines to the rest of us). Descent of Angels deals with the childhood of Lion El'Johnson the genetically engineered Primarch of the Dark Angels Legion from his finding, lost, on the medival style planet of Caliban to the first signs of cracks in the Legion's loyalty.

What can I say that others haven't already said about this (at time of writing) thirteen year old novel. Well firstly I think I'm going to be forced to echo the complaint laid by so many at its door. This novel is poor... really poor... Where we should have a swashbuckling, rip-roaring, sci-fi adventure featuring warrior monks fighting eldritch horrors from the darkest recesses of the human mind we get... exposition followed by some more exposition only interrupted by a little exposition and dialogue an eight year old would call "a bit forced". Even Gareth Armstrong's narration feels sleepy and uninterested. I'm really not sure how you can take a story from Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 universe and make it so dammed boring, in fact this is the first time I've almost nodded off while listening to a story since I was a toddler. Luckily for you, dear reader, this adds nothing to the story so far, and if I recall my 40k lore, nothing to the continuing tale.

Do yourself a favour and just *skip this novel

*Skip in this case means miss out but the option to throw in a skip is still there...

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Review: What Abigail Did That Summer

What Abigail Did That Summer by Ben Aaronovitch

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ghost hunter, fox whisperer, troublemaker.

 It is the summer of 2013, and Abigail Kamara has been left to her own devices. This might, by those who know her, be considered a mistake. While her cousin, police constable and apprentice wizard Peter Grant, is off in the sticks chasing unicorns Abigail is chasing her own mystery. Teenagers around Hampstead Heath have been going missing but before the police can get fully engaged the teens return home—unharmed but vague about where they've been. Aided only by her friend Simon, her knowledge that magic is real and a posse of talking foxes that think they're spies, Abigail must venture into the wilds of Hampstead to discover who is luring the teenagers and importantly—why?

Set during Peter's sojourn to Herefordshire (see Foxglove Summer) we find that while the furore of the missing children there is ongoing there's a lesser mystery occurring in Hampstead. Children are going missing only to return with no memory of where they've been... Abigail is intrigued to say the least.

I found What Abigail Did That Summer to be a lovely if a little short jump into the life of one of the more interesting side characters of the series. Abigail is presented as a smart, caring and, most of all, capable protagonist. Possibly a little too capable for a very inexperienced teenager... mind you the arrogance of youth and all that. Abigail is aided in this adventure by Simon, who I think won't be much of a recurring character and one of the wonderful talking foxes first seen in the graphic novel Cry Fox. I really enjoyed this Audible version of the story although I found Shvorne Marks' the tiniest bit off-putting with her not using Abigail's dialect (know what I mean bruv innit) as written by Aaronovitch, not a deal breaker by any means but a touch off.

The story is, as you'd expect, much less police procedural and more Famous Five meets Sapphire and Steel which i found to be very refreshing.

I think we'll be seeing Abigail and her foxy friends a lot more in the future and that's no bad thing.

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Review: Artemis

Artemis by Andy Weir

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Ever had a bad day?

Try having one on the moon...

WELCOME TO ARTEMIS. The first city on the moon. Population 2,000. Mostly tourists. Some criminals.

Jazz Bashara is one of the criminals. She lives in a poor area of Artemis and subsidises her work as a porter with smuggling contraband onto the moon. But it's not enough. So when she's offered the chance to make a lot of money she jumps at it.

But though planning a crime in 1/6th gravity may be more fun, it's a lot more dangerous.

So, where to start? Well firstly Artemis does have a good plot, piss poorly executed, but good. The main problem for me is that our protagonist, Jazz Bashara, is supposed to be a Saudi, Muslim woman brought up in Artemis who works as a part-time porter and full time smuggler yet her inner voice (and outer voice for that matter) sound exactly like Mark Watney the white, American, male, science dude from Weir's previous novel, The Martian. Secondly the story is written in the same manner as The Martian, understandable as it's the same author, but it really doesn't work for what is at its essence a heist story.

Anyway enough about the story, Rosario Dawson, (Ahsoka Tano in The Madalorian and Claire Temple/Night Nurse in the Netflix Marvel series) narrates the story. As far as I can tell this is her first outing as an audiobook narrator and to some extent it shows. Her reading of the story is competent enough but a little dry for some of the high octane action scenes. It's the dialogue where she shines as is only to be expected of an actress of her quality.

Honestly I didn't enjoy this book but looking at the reviews on Goodreads many others have. If my opinion is important to you I'd say give it a miss but I'll let you decide.

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